European journal of psychotraumatology
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Eur J Psychotraumatol · Jan 2014
Early outreach to survivors of the shootings in Norway on the 22nd of July 2011.
Under-treatment and unmet needs among survivors have been documented years after terror attacks. Improved early and proactive outreach strategies, including targeted interventions for individuals in need, are required. After the terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011, a national, proactive outreach strategy was developed and implemented to help those who were directly affected. ⋯ In accordance with the national strategy, the vast majority of the participants in this study had received an early and proactive outreach and targeted responses from specialized mental health services had been provided to survivors in need of more extensive help. However, an important minority of the participants had not been reached as planned. The knowledge from this study may guide professionals and decision makers in planning for future disasters and improve the levels of care.
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Eur J Psychotraumatol · Jan 2014
Deployment-related mental health support: comparative analysis of NATO and allied ISAF partners.
For years there has been a tremendous gap in our understanding of the mental health effects of deployment and the efforts by military forces at trying to minimize or mitigate these. Many military forces have recently systematized the mental support that is provided to support operational deployments. However, the rationale for doing so and the consequential allocation of resources are felt to vary considerably across North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) International Security Assistance (ISAF) partners. This review aims to compare the organization and practice of mental support by five partnering countries in the recent deployment in Afghanistan in order to identify and compare the key methods and structures for delivering mental health support, describe bottlenecks and illustrate new developments. ⋯ This analysis demonstrated that in all five partners state-of-the-art preventative mental healthcare was included in the last deployment in Afghanistan, including a positive approach towards strengthening the mental resilience, a focus on self-regulatory skills and self-empowerment, and several initiatives that were well-integrated in a military context. These initiatives were partly/completely implemented by the military/colleagues/supervisors and applicable during several phases of the deployment cycle. Important new developments in operational mental health support are recognition of the role of social leadership and enhancement of operational peer support. This requires awareness of mental problems that will contribute to reduction of the barriers to care in case of problems. Finally, comparing mental health support services across countries can contribute to optimal preparation for the challenges of military deployment.
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Eur J Psychotraumatol · Jan 2014
Chronic pain patients with possible co-morbid post-traumatic stress disorder admitted to multidisciplinary pain rehabilitation-a 1-year cohort study.
Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common co-morbidity in chronic pain, little is known about the association between PTSD and pain in the context of chronic pain rehabilitation. ⋯ Possible co-morbid PTSD in chronic pain is a major problem associated with significantly poorer functioning on several domains. Nevertheless, our results indicate that pain-related symptoms could be treated with success despite possible co-morbid PTSD. However, since PTSD was only measured at admission it is not known whether rehabilitation actually reduced PTSD.
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Eur J Psychotraumatol · Jan 2014
The University of Queensland study of physical and psychological outcomes for claimants with minor and moderate injuries following a road traffic crash (UQ SuPPORT): design and methods.
To date research investigating how mental health impacts physical recovery following a road traffic crash (RTC) has focused on cohorts with severe injuries. The UQ SuPPORT study aims to study the physical and psychological outcomes of claimants with minor injuries following an RTC under the Queensland common law compulsory insurance scheme. ⋯ This study has collected a unique sample of data to investigate recovery patterns of claimants with minor injuries. Future publications will more fully assess the effects of the collected measures on recovery rates 2 years post-RTC.